`Abd al-`Al
Hilmiy was at Turrah `Aliy Ruwbiy commanded
the cavalry. Matters came to a crisis in January, 1881. I
had gone to spend the evening with Nigm al-Diyn Pasha, and
there were at his house some pashas talking over the changes `Uthman
Rifqiy had in hand, and I learned from them that it had been
decided that I and `Abd al-`Al should be deprived of
our commands, and our places given to officers of the Circassian class.
At the same moment a message arrived for me from my house to say
that `Aliy Fahmiy had come there with `Abd al-`Al
and was awaiting me. So I went home 'and I found them there, and from them
I learned the same evil news. We therefore took council what was
to be done. `Abd al-`Al proposed that we should
go in force to `Uthman Rifqiy’s house and arrest or
kill him, but I said, "No, let us petition first the Prime Minister,
and then, if he refuses, the Khedive." And they charged me to
draw the petition up in form. And I did so, stating the case, and demanding
the dismissal of `Uthman Rifqiy, and the raising of
the army to 18,000 men, and the decreeing of the promised
Constitution. This we all three signed, though knowing that our lives were
at stake.
The following morning
we went with our petition to the Minister of the Interior and
asked to see Riyad. We were shown into an outer room and
waited while the Minister read it in an inner room. Presently he came out.
"Your petition," he said, "is mu`alIaq" (a hanging
matter). "What is it you want? to change the Ministry? And what
would you put in its place? Whom do you propose to carry on
the government?" And I answered him, " Ya sa`at al-Basha
is Egypt then a woman who has borne but eight sons and then been barren
?" By this I meant himself - and the seven ministers under him.
He was angry at this, but in the end said he would see into our affair,
and so we left him. Immediately a council was assembled with the Khedive
and all his Court, and Stone and Blitz also. And the
Khedive proposed that we should be arrested and tried, but
others said, "If these are put on trial, `Uthman
Pasha also must be tried." Therefore `Uthman
was left to deal with it alone. And the rest you know.
You ask did the Khedive
at that time know of our intention to petition. He did not know that
nor that `Aliy Fahmiy came to us. But afterwards he knew. You ask
did I know the Baron de Ring. I did not know him, nor any
one of the Consuls, but I heard that the French Consul had the most
influence, and I wrote to him telling him what our position was, and begging
him to let the other Consuls know that there was no fear for their subjects.
You ask if I knew Mahmuwd Samiy al-Baruwdiy.
I did not know him yet. but he was a friend of my friend `Aliy
al-Ruwbiy, and I heard a good account of him as a lover of freedom.
He was of a Circassian family, but one that had been established 600
years in Egypt.
(To be continued)
Excerpt
from "The Wind and the Whirlwind"
Poem
by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt.
" We have had
enough of strangers and of princes
Nursed on our
knees and lords within our houses.
The bread which
they have eaten was our children's,
For them the
feasting and the shame for us."
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